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I can't see the forest for the trees.

I am really new to the whole concept of content management systems (to the point where I'm still not sure how it is structured - is it a set of codes that you insert into your own html document, or is it a complete package that you can customize visually?). What I would really like to know is whether there are any sample websites done with the different CMS's such as Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla that I could take a look at so that I can see what they can do, and what they look like from the outside and inside if I view the source code. When searching for information, I find it is easy to find answers to specific questions, but next to impossible to find something that explains the big picture. I need to know about the forest before I can understand the trees, if you get the analogy.

Also, is there any book or tutorial that will lead me by the hand in building and customizing a dummy website using Wordpress from the ground up? I have downloaded Wordpress, but have no idea where to go from there.

Okay, I just signed up at Wordpress.com for my own blog and it looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for the suggestion. It has given me a good idea of what Wordpress can do for a person. What I really need now is help or a tutorial or a book on how to build a website independent of Wordpress.com, but using Wordpress, for a client who would want to update his/her own content and images.

Well, WP can run on its own domain name and hosting. it really is quite flexible to modify how you want it to look and work, and would be ideal to pass over to your client once its modified to their needs.

As for learning the ropes a lot can be learned from their knowledge base and forum, or post here and I'll be happy to help in any way I can.

This is a good question - something I'd like a more complete answer on as well.

I don't really see wordpress as a viabile option except for simple blogs - some of the bigger more advanced CMS systems seem to cover more of the bases - i'd like to see an answer to your question related to Drupal, Xoops, Joomla.

I know about CMS matrix site - but again - using your analogy - that is PURE TREES AND NO FORREST.

A big part of the whole FORREST is the question of Forum integration vs native forums in the CMS.

I've been using Wordpress for the site of some of my clients and the funny thing is that I thought it is of no difference to the blogger. Really sometimes it irks me when it has some glitches in posting, like it won't show your post from time to time. whew!

I have used WordPress for quite complex content managed sites with no blog at all. I generally use it for a more straight-forward content management system, self-hosted not wordpress.com though.

I build a "normal" layout and then cut it up into the WP templates as required - there's really no limit the designs possible, it's not a case of a cookie-cutter type site that's clearly identifiable as WP.

The only problem I have with it is that if I build a complex site and WP issues an update (which it always does) then it can be painful to update the site. For less hacked-about WP CMS sites then it's not usually a problem.

The Joomla site has a thing ywhere you can sign up for a free, temporary admin account, so you can play around with the backend without having to install it on a server (testing, development, or production) or worry about breaking anything important.

It has been mentioned thousands of times but I'll do it once again http://www.opensourcecms.com/ offers the option to test-run all major (and not so major) CMS' without the need to install them. I'm using this from time to time to see what's new out there